Chennai, November 1 (IANS). In a major relief to senior citizens, the Tamil Nadu government has reduced the age eligibility for home delivery of essential goods under the Public Distribution System (PDS) from 70 years to 65 years.
According to Cooperative Department officials, the decision was taken following a request from the public to extend this facility to people aged 65 years and above, who often face difficulty in visiting fair price shops.
Under the changed schedule, the department has also decided that now ration items will be delivered to eligible beneficiaries in the first week of every month (especially on Saturday and Sunday). Let us tell you that earlier this used to happen in the second week.
From this month, door deliveries will be done on November 3 and 4 and the same pattern will be followed in the following months.
Officials said the purpose of this change is to improve the efficiency of the scheme and ensure timely delivery of goods to elderly and disabled cardholders.
Officials further said that due to earlier delays and logistics challenges, many beneficiaries were not opting for home delivery.
This home delivery scheme initially covered 20.42 lakh elderly people and 1.27 lakh PWDs. Which was started to help senior citizens above 70 years of age and persons with disabilities (PWD).
However, officials said that about 8 percent of the people included in the list were found dead, due to which changes had to be made in the database.
“Now that the age limit has been reduced to 65 years, the updated list will include more beneficiaries, including those whose names were accidentally left out earlier. The final list will be ready in the next few months,” said a senior department official.
Officials also said there were several reasons for the low response to the initiative in recent months, including delays in distribution and migration of beneficiaries to other districts.
The government hopes that the new delivery schedule and enhanced eligibility criteria will help address these concerns and increase participation. PDS Home Delivery Scheme was launched with the objective of providing home delivery of essential commodities like rice, sugar, wheat and kerosene to senior citizens and PWDs who cannot visit the ration shops themselves.
With this new change, thousands of additional beneficiaries across Tamil Nadu are expected to benefit from this initiative.
–IANS
VKU/AS